Homestar Saga

Chapter 150: Wrath of the Skygem

The Skygem's door was already open. The ship moved in close, and a woman in a blue and gold voidsuit reached for Yvian. Yvian couldn't see her face through the visor, but she new those curves. Yuriko. What was she doing here?

No time. Yvian grabbed the human. Dr. Miner pulled her into the ship. Gravity took hold as Yvian crossed the threshold, crashing her into the ground. Yvian scrambled. Her damaged knee wouldn't support her, so she crawled for the control Nodes as fast as she could. Yuriko saw what she was doing and tried to help.

Crunch, that Peacekeeper suit was heavy. Yvian's heart pounded as she scrambled for the Node. It wasn't far. Just ten meters. She got there fast, all things considered. Yvian prayed to the Bright Lady it had been fast enough.

Reba's reserve force had YEET Artillery barges. They'd destroyed the first wave of Queenships. They'd no doubt already fired at the second. Yvian didn't know how far away they were, but a YEET round would travel at eighty kilometers a second. At two thousand kilometers, it would take twenty seconds to kill the new Queens. At six thousand, a minute. Her people could die any moment, if they hadn't already.

There was another woman at the control Nodes. Yvian assumed it was Dr. Laswell. The lady released her hold on a control crystal when she saw Yvian coming. She stood. Yvian got the impression she was saying something, but the pixen's comms were as fried as the rest of her armor, and there was no atmosphere to carry the sound. Not that it mattered. Yvian ignored the woman. She ignored the downed Peacekeeper unit next to the woman. She ignored Yuriko and her bad knee and her screaming tailbone and every other Crunchdamned distraction and grabbed the green crystal Node.

Yvian became the Skygem. Her senses expanded into the void. At the same time, confusion and panic exploded into her soul. The babies were crying. They'd sensed their big sister, and their pleas for help hammered at the crystal ship. The Skygem desperately wanted to save them, but she did not know how. She begged Yvian to tell her what to do.

Yvian focused on the crying Lucendian ships. Three of them were afraid. They were yoked to human vessels, but those vessels had been disabled. They were trapped, terrified, but mostly unharmed..

The fourth was in terrible pain. The newborn crystal ship was being force fed. More energy than she could process was being rammed into her hull. The baby ship was shunting the excess the only way she could, but the strain was too much. It would kill her. Tiny cracks were already spreading through her body.

Yvian followed the psychic wail. The final Techjammer was positioned about a thousand kilometers from the Gate's farthest edge. Yvian's heart sank when she saw it. A Dreadnaught. Ten kilometers of unstoppable war machine, the pinnacle of human technology. It wasn't as powerful as a Queenship, but it didn't have to be.

The Skygem possessed only one weapon. A pair of crystals that formed a beam emitter. The original purpose of the crystals was the transfer of energy between Lucendian ships, but it was almost twice as destructive as a Stinger unit's weapon. Excellent for combat with other fighter class ships. Useless against a Federation Dreadnaught.

A Pulse would take it out. The Skygem could release all her energy at once, and destroy every electronic device for four thousand kilometers. It would also kill every Peacekeeper unit in the sector, and disable every ship on Yvian's side. It wouldn't kill any Xill. They were too far away. Reba's reserve fleet was even farther, nearly ten thousand kilometers.

No, the Pulse wasn't an option. The second wave of Queenships were the last of what Pixa could muster. Admiral Zhukov had been willing to risk half of Pixa's Queens, but not more than half. If Yvian lost this fleet, there wouldn't be another. It would just be her and Skygem, against millions of Xill and whatever else Reba could throw at them. She would accomplish nothing, and she would die.